1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a work-flow support system for supporting a work flow comprising a plurality of tasks which comply with rules, and particularly to a work-flow support system for supporting effective use of an already-executed task.
2. Description of the Related Art
A work-flow support system for supporting a flow of work (work flow) comprised of a plurality of jobs (tasks) has heretofore been known.
In such a work-flow support system, the work flow is represented as rules and the plurality of tasks are executed in accordance with the rules. Rule notating methods exist in a wide variety of forms according to systems but are generally ruled in such a form as to associate the respective jobs (tasks) with a process for editing an electronic mail document and define a delivery path of the electronic mail document based on a task dependent relation.
Now consider a work flow for managing each month-long report by a leader in a given group, for example. In this case, the form for the report is first created and its delivery path can be defined so that the report is sequentially delivered from the leader to each member of the group and finally returned to the leader.
However, the definition of the rules which take such a form that the document is delivered in order in time sequence, cannot represent the general structure of work. This is because such a definition is nothing but one in which the tasks that make up the work or job, are arranged in order of time considered to be typical and is separated from the work structure.
The aforementioned definition will also cause a problem in that the work structure cannot be represented obediently and the relationship of time sequence of work originally unnecessary upon the execution of the work is determined.
A system for solving this problem has been disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 8-101817 (hereinafter called xe2x80x9creference 1xe2x80x9d).
In a rule notating method employed in the present reference 1, each rule can be described as shown in FIG. 3(a) based on the parental relation of work except for the definition made in the above-described manner. Rules for executing tasks for personal monthly report creation based on respective members without depending on such a sequence that they are executed simultaneously (concurrently), can be described as a work flow for executing tasks for group monthly report creation based on a leader in a given group.
In the system described in the reference 1, another task described in a rule capable of unifying a condition part from a rule group upon execution of one task is automatically started up. Therefore, rules for a work flow for executing tasks for personal monthly report creation, which urge one of members to add records to a report without forgetting for each week, are described as shown in FIG. 2(a), for example. As a result, the work flow for executing the tasks for the corresponding personal monthly report creation can be automatically executed after the tasks for the aforementioned group monthly report creation are started up.
In the system shown in the reference 1 as described above, any task in the rule group may first be started up, and the rules can be freely created and executed as a work flow in which the relationship of the sequence of the respective tasks with respect to the startup is not defined and which executes tasks to which individuals are related. The present system can perform soft or flexible operation as compared with the general work-flow support system.
In a working process for successively delivering a document among a plurality of persons, a process in which a document-received person refers to the already-described document and desires the previous person to modify it, repeatedly occurs.
Upon such a condition, the system shown in the reference 1 can automatically perform process repetition upon execution even when the rules for the work flow are linearly defined by a backtrack mechanism due to a failed state. Since a large-scale workflow is realized as a small rule group, it can be partially executed and hence a partial task based on a re-trial can be repeatedly executed.
Thus, the work-flow system having flexibility is used not only in a routine job like a slip process but also in other jobs. The work-flow system is to be used even in such a job that, for example, several persons jointly write a document, a book, specifications, a program, etc.
When the plurality of users write them in cooperation, the desire to manage an intermediate product as well as the final product (result document) is produced. As a system that meets such a desire or request, one called generally xe2x80x9cversion management systemxe2x80x9d already exists.
As described above, the system described in the reference 1 will cause the following problems although it can provide soft operation.
For example, the work flow for executing the tasks for the above-described group monthly report creation is normally executed at the end of the month in which a monthly report is made consciously, whereas the work flow for executing the tasks for the personal monthly report creation might be executed prior to the work flow.
On the other hand, when a plurality of work-flows, which share the use of some task, are defined, the shared task might be executed previously by other work-flows.
Thus, the tasks constituting some of the work flow for executing the given task may very well turn out to be started up precedently on a time basis. The tasks for the above-described group monthly report creation will be explained by way of example when such a condition occurs. Even though the members have already created their own monthly reports in accordance with the tasks for the personal monthly report creation, the tasks for the personal monthly report creation are executed again according to the work flow for executing the tasks for the leader-based group monthly report creation. Thus, excess working such as the transfer of the contents of the already-created report to the form of each monthly report delivered from the leader, etc. will occur.
Although one having the function of tracing the states of the respective tasks along the work flow exists as the work-flow system, the already-executed tasks are treated as unrelated to the subsequent work flow. Therefore, the paths of tracing of tasks related to the already-executed tasks will fall into a cut-off state.
The normal work-flow system other than the system shown in the reference 1 cannot solve the above-described problems, either.
When the version management system is used for the desire to manage the intermediate product in the work-flow support system, the user must manage the correlation of products of the two systems with their management information manually or by another method because the version management system exists separately from the work-flow support system.
With the foregoing in view, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a work-flow support system capable of easily and suitably connecting a task executed precedently on a time basis to a subsequently executed work flow.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a work-flow support system capable of easily managing a product based on a task at the occurrence of re-execution when the re-execution for a given task occurs.
According to one aspect of this invention, for achieving the above objects, there is provided a work-flow support system for supporting a work flow comprised of a plurality of tasks defined according to rules, comprising:
an execution request receiving unit for accepting a task execution request;
a processing wait task storing unit for temporarily storing the accepted task execution request;
a rule interpretation executing unit for executing a task corresponding to the stored execution request under the execution of another task according to rules;
a history managing unit for managing history information about the executed task; and
a task history unifying unit for, when history information about a task corresponding to the new execution request stored in the processing wait task storing unit is already stored in the history storing unit, notifying the corresponding history information to a request source for the new execution request.
Now, the term history information indicates information such as information for specifying a result obtained by the execution of each task, information about the state of execution of each task or the like.
In the work-flow support system according to the present invention, basically, the execution request receiving unit accepts a task execution request, the processing wait task storing unit temporarily stores the task execution request accepted by the execution request receiving unit, the rule interpretation executing unit executes a task corresponding to the stored execution request under the execution of another task according to rules, and the history managing unit manages history information about the task corresponding to the execution request.
When the history information about the task corresponding to the new execution request stored in the processing wait task storing unit is already stored in the history storing unit, the task history unifying unit notifies the corresponding history information to a request source for the new execution request.
Thus, the history information about the task executed precedently on a time basis can be notified to the task execution request source without having to re-execute the task.
According to another aspect of this invention, there is provided a work-flow support system further comprising a rule group storing unit for holding rules which define other tasks to be executed to execute a given task, and a connection information storing unit for storing therein connection information for connecting history information about related tasks to one another. The rule interpretation executing unit further allows the connection information storing unit to store connection information for connecting history information about a task corresponding to an execution request and another task to be executed. When history information about a task corresponding to a new execution request stored in the processing wait task storing unit is already stored in the history storing unit, the task history unifying unit further reflects the history information about the task corresponding to the new execution request and the history information about the already-stored task on the connection information as history information about the same task.
In the work-flow support system referred to above, the rule interpretation executing unit allows the connection information storing unit to store connection information for connecting history information about a task corresponding to an execution request and another task to be executed.
When history information about a task corresponding to a new execution request stored in the processing wait task storing unit is already stored in the history storing unit, the task history unifying unit reflects the history information about the task corresponding to the new execution request and the history information about the already-stored task on the connection information as history information about the same task.
Thus, history information about a task that belongs to a work flow including each task executed precedently on a time basis can be connected to history information about a task that belongs to another work flow including the executed task. For example, history information about related tasks can be obtained as is the case in which history information about a subtask of a precedently-executed task can be obtained from the side in which an execution request for the precedently-executed task is subsequently done.
According to a further aspect of this invention, there is provided a work-flow support system further comprising a saving unit for, when a re-execution request for a task already executed by an execution request receiving unit is accepted, saving document information included in history information related to the corresponding task.
In the work-flow support system referred to above, when a re-execution request for a task already executed by the execution request receiving unit is accepted, the saving unit saves document information included in history information related to the corresponding task.
Thus, the document information related to the task prior to the re-execution, can be saved and put to use or the like subsequently.